Mycoplasma laboratory

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mycoplasma laboratorium is the name of an artificial bacterium with a minimal genome . As a strategy for the production it has been proposed to synthesize a genome that contains only the essential genes of one Mycoplasma species and then insert this genome into bacterial cells whose genome has been removed. The name Mycoplasma laboratorium is derived from the Mycoplasma bacteria, whose genome is very small and has already been researched, but it is only a working title for the project and is not an official taxon .

One aim of such experiments is to determine the minimum number of genes necessary for a living organism to be able to maintain metabolism, growth and reproduction. A research team of around 20 scientists led by Craig Venter and Nobel Prize winner Hamilton Othanel Smith expects that the resulting bacterium will self-replicate with synthetic DNA . In a published study, they destroyed genes from Mycoplasma genitalium and described that 382 of the 482 genes in this organism are essential. Experiments are currently underway with a variant with 381 protein- coding genes with 580,000 base pairs .

According to Craig Venter, the artificially produced minimal genome should serve as a starting point for producing genome variants for bacteria that are able to carry out important biotechnological processes such as the extraction of fuel from sugar or the absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

On May 21, 2010, Science reported that the Venter group had successfully synthesized the genome of the bacterium Mycoplasma mycoides from a computer protocol and transplanted it into an existing Mycoplasma capricolum cell whose DNA had previously been removed. The team used Mycoplasma mycoides instead of Mycoplasma genitalium because it grew faster. The new bacterium was viable - that is, it was able to replicate billions of times - but, strictly speaking, it wasn't really a synthetic form of life.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl A. Reich (2000): The search for essential genes. In: Res Microbiol. 151 No. 5, pp. 319-324. PMID 10919511 doi : 10.1016 / S0923-2508 (00) 00153-4
  2. a b Glass, JI et al. (2006): Essential genes of a minimal bacterium. In: Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103 (2): 425-430. PMID 16407165 doi : 10.1073 / pnas.0510013103
  3. a b Boening, Nies (2007): The Trillion Dollar Organism In: Technology Review.
  4. Genetic engineer wants to have created an artificial way of life. In: Sueddeutsche.de.
  5. Tim Hornyak: Scientists create synthetic cell, version 1.0. In: cnet.com. CNET , May 20, 2010, accessed November 5, 2018 .

swell